Tales from a Campervan and Beyond

First of all I have two things to mention before I start the post:

1. Thanks a million to Paula and John who showed us around Auckland and let us stay with them. We had a great a time

2. Hello to Mrs. Meecham who I believe is now a viewer of the blog.

Ok so, we left Queenstown to drive to Lake Tekapo for our second last night in the camper. As we got on the road we were confronted by signs that said "Snow chains essential". Unfortunately, we didn't have snow chains and no other choice but to chance our luck and hope that the god morning had cleared the roads enough. When we got to the bad area, there was a bit of snow on the road but apart from a couple of hairy patches the road wasn't too bad. One little tiny wobble at the back was the worst effect it had on us and the van marched on!

When we got to Lake Tekapo however we quickly realised that there was nothing there worth seeing so we glanced at our map and decided that Akaroa would be an alright place to stop. That was a wierd town with all the street names and most of the shop names written in French. We were too cheap to pay for a campsite that night so went in search of a picnic area to park up for the night. That proved harder than it had in other places. We ended up half way up a mountain on a lane going into somebodies farm and nowhere to turn around because the road was too narrow and there was a substnacial drop to one side! Eventually thought we got down and found a picnic area on the opposite side of the town.

After that and 2 days of mainly reading books we dropped the van back in Christchurch. Was a pity to be finishing up the road-trip but I was looking forward to a bed and a bit of space :) Another night in X-Base in Christchurch and then we flew to Auckland where John and Paula, two people that me and Jonny met trekking in Thailand, collect us from the airport. They showed us around the city including a tour of the Lion Brewery, the crowd that brew Guinness in New Zealand, but they had no answers as to why it tastes like piss over here! In the evening we out to dinner and then had a few beers before hitting the hay.

From here we leave for Buenos aires and strangely, we'll be there in about 2 hours! Well at least it will 2 hours later in the day. For us this is the seemingly never-ending Thursday which I think will be about 40 hours long or there abouts due to us crossing the international date line. Technically it means my birthday changes too but we wont worry about technicalities :)

Will update soon with pictures from South America, until then.... Hast luego!

Brian